Academic Integrity

At Activate Learning, we value academic integrity and uphold the highest standards of honesty and trust in all aspects of our educational community.

Maintaining academic integrity is essential for fostering a culture of learning, integrity, and ethical conduct among our students and staff. This page serves as a guide to understanding academic integrity and the expectations we have for our learners at Activate Learning.

What is Academic Integrity?

Academic integrity refers to the ethical principles and values that guide ethical behaviour in academic settings. It involves demonstrating honesty, respect for intellectual property, and a commitment to upholding academic standards.

Academic integrity violations can take various forms, including but not limited to:

  1. Plagiarism: using someone else’s work without referencing is plagiarism. Plagiarism is like copying - pretending someone else’s words, images or ideas are your own. If you are thought to have plagiarised, you may be subject to disciplinary procedures.
  2. Cheating: Using unauthorized materials, devices, or resources during exams or assessments, collaborating with others when not allowed, or engaging in any form of dishonest behaviour to gain an unfair advantage.
  3. Collusion: Illegitimately collaborating with others on assignments or assessments when individual work is required, such as sharing answers, submitting the same work, or allowing others to complete tasks on your behalf.
  4. Fabrication: Creating data, citations, sources, or any other information used in academic work to mislead or deceive others.
  5. Unauthorized Assistance: Seeking or providing unauthorised help or assistance during exams, assignments, or other assessments, such as obtaining answers or solutions from external sources without permission.

Promoting Academic Integrity

We believe in fostering a community that upholds academic integrity. We encourage students and staff to:

  1. Understand and practice proper citation and referencing techniques, giving credit to original sources appropriately. Take a look at the Academic Integrity Course on Activate Learning Online. Academic Integrity (instructure.com)
  2. Seek clarification when unsure about citation rules, assignment guidelines, or any other academic requirements.
  3. Cultivate a culture of honesty, respect, and accountability, promoting academic integrity among peers and within Activate Learning’s community.
  4. Encourage open dialogue and discussions on the importance of academic integrity, ethical behaviour, and the consequences of academic dishonesty.
  5. Utilise the resources and support services available to enhance academic skills, time management, and study strategies, reducing the likelihood of academic integrity issues.

AI and Academic Integrity

We encourage our staff and students to utilise technology responsibly, ethically, and in accordance with Activate Learning’s policies. This includes respecting copyright laws, properly citing digital sources, and using software, databases, and online resources in a lawful and ethical manner.

Generative AI presents a highly compelling opportunity to enhance our students' learning experience. It holds the potential to empower them with increased engagement in higher-order critical thinking and creative endeavours. Furthermore, developing skills to effectively use Generative AI skills is and will remain integral to the contemporary workplace. Therefore, equipping our students with the competence to effectively harness Generative AI is a fundamental necessity, and it becomes our responsibility to facilitate their acquisition of such skills. 

As with any new technology, we need to ensure our staff and students fully understand the benefits and disadvantages of using such technology and are fully aware of wide-ranging ethical considerations. Researchers had predicted that AI would affect most jobs and new predictions are emerging almost weekly. It is our responsibility to adapt our schemes of learning to embed the skills that will give our learners the best chance of being successful in this changing work landscape. These cognitive and meta-cognitive skills include critical and creative thinking, learning-to-learn, self-regulation, social and emotional skills (empathy, self-efficacy, responsibility and collaboration), and practical and physical skills, such as understanding emerging technologies.  

Download the Activate Learning position statement on Generative AI